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About the conductor

Stefan Asbury

A regular guest with many of the world’s leading orchestras, STEFAN ASBURY is renowned for his innovative programming and passionate advocacy of new music. Aside from his ongoing relationships with the Basel Sinfonietta, Ensemble Contrechamps, and the Tapiola Sinfonietta (of which he has been Artist in Association since the 2007/08 season), recent seasons have seen him perform with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the London and Seattle symphony orchestras, the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Orchestra of St Luke’s. In the 2009/10 season, guest engagements include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the NDR Sinfonieorchester, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Munich Biennale.

Asbury has served on the faculty of the Tanglewood Music Center since 1995 and was Associate Director of New Music Activities from 1999-2005; he currently holds the Sana H. Sabbagh master teacher chair on the Conducting Faculty. He also held the post of Music Director of the Remix Ensemble Casa da Musica Porto from 2001-2005, working with them to commission new works and programming an innovative mix of jazz, film, and music theater.

In past seasons, Asbury has enjoyed collaborations with orchestras such as WDR Sinfonieorchester, HR Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt), RAI Turin, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, and ORF Radiosinfonie-orchester Wien, and he is a regular guest conductor at festivals such as Automne en Normandie, Wien Modern and Wiener Festwochen, the Salzburger Festspiele, and La Biennale di Venezia.

In the opera world, Asbury conducted John Adams’ A Flowering Tree for the 2009 Perth International Arts Festival. Other recent opera productions have included Wolfgang Rihm’s Jakob Lenz for the 2008 Wiener Festwochen, a concert version of Britten’s Owen Wingrave with Tapiola Sinfonietta, the world premiere of Van Vlijmen’s Thyeste with Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie and the Nationale Reisopera, and Staud’s Berenice at Munich Biennale. He will conduct A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Karlsruhe in December 2010.

Asbury has particularly strong relationships with many composers including Steve Reich, Wolfgang Rihm, Rebecca Saunders, Unsuk Chin, and Mark Anthony Turnage, and collaborates regularly with Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, musikFabrik, and the London Sinfonietta. Last season Asbury continued his collaboration with the Mark Morris Dance Group in a production of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. Performances took place at Lincoln Center and at the Barbican, among other venues.

Stefan Asbury has released a recording of works by Unsuk Chin with Ensemble Intercontemporain on Deutsche Grammophon. His CD of music by Jonathan Harvey with the Ensemble Intercontemporain was awarded a Monde de la Musique CHOC award, and his Grisey complete Les espaces acoustiques cycle with WDR Köln won the German Music Critics award. His discography also includes music by Isang Yun with the Deutsches Sinfonieorchester Berlin, works by Elliott Carter with Ensemble Sospeso, as well as portrait discs of Philip Cashian with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Rebecca Saunders with musikFabrik.